Needle Light
by DWIAgal
Summary: The Doctor and Rose are heading to an Adventure in the Tardis when they are drawn into a tunnel hidden beneath an abandoned part of Futuristic Sydney. Something is snatching women and using them for "experimenting" but the Doctor is too late to help Rose.
1. Behind You

Lora waited quietly under a blinking light. The street was completely empty except for herself. It didn't feel right, during the day this place was bustling with people laughing, chatting, shouting and now they were all home like she should be. Her stomach rolled uncomfortably at the thought. Her home was out there too somewhere. Her hands fidgeted in front of her and her feet tapped impatiently. But tonight she was busy. Tonight she was on a mission and nothing would stop her. Her mission was with her best mate Helen. Under her beanie her eyes scooted round expectantly in the darkness for Helen. Finally a figure with gleaming eyes and an outrageous smile emerged and came over.

"Let's get going then." She said cheerfully.

Lora didn't know how she did it. Probably just experience she thought as they walked briskly across the street in silence. They walked in and out of darkness as they passed the lights. Finally Helen stopped at a dank shop with grubby windows and a little sign saying "We're open "hanging from the front door. She winked and then slipped inside. Lora followed begrudgingly.

Inside the man at the counter snored lazily. He rolled over on his seat and a string of saliva dripped down on to the counter. _Maybe this won't be hard after all_ she thought. They walked past him quietly and to the door behind the counter. Lora opened the door slowly and to her relief it didn't creak. Inside they went.

The little room was packed with a couple of boxes but apart from that it was empty. Helen bent down and felt around the floor. Sure enough in the middle of the room there was a trapdoor. She winked and opened it letting out an odour that was a mixture between rotten eggs and mould. They staggered backwards. They tied a cloth over their noses and gently crouched over the hole. Helen mouthed the words, "I'll go" and jumped in.

There was a splash and thumbs up and Lora jumped too. She made a big splash as she landed in a brown puddle. She frowned disgusted and stepped out. Then she grabbed her torch and lit the way. Helen reached into her pocket and pulled out a camera. She snapped the puddle and they walked off. After a few seconds she smiled.

"Well we found our tunnel. This will have that man out of my seat in no time. Whatta ya say!"

Lora nodded, "this place is filthy."

"Soon as he's out I'll get it cleared. Turn it into You Know What."

"How are you going to do that?" she said.

"Jim. He's gonna go and threaten the government with the photos. They'll clear it up and keep it all secret and we'll innocently ask if we can have it once they done their deed."

Lora nodded glancing behind her.

"Come on Lora, why you all white now."

"Thought I heard a noise, that's all."

"Nothing' down here but rats, Lora come on, and that wall will make a great photo." She fiddled with her camera.

She glanced back for Lora to follow but found no one.

"Lora! This isn't the time for yer games!" She called but no one appeared.

She shook her head and started to fiddle with her camera again. She raised it to her face for the photo when a clawed hand grabbed her face. Her entire body kicked and squirmed but it didn't lose its grip.

She was sent into darkness.


	2. Nice to Be of Service

The doctor manoeuvred around the Tardis controls moving, pressing and in some instances banging them. He went on like this for awhile.

Meanwhile Rose was lying in an awkward position on the ground in her PJs asleep.

"Rose," he said spinning a dial, "ready for our next adventure in time!" he was expecting Rose to say "and space" but he got nothing.

"Rose..." he stopped, spotting her on the ground.

"Okay, maybe later." He said whispering to her.

He moved the hair from her face and smiled happily at her peaceful face. Then he pulled her into his lap and scooped her up into a ball before standing up carefully. He made for the stairs but just then the Tardis shook violently. He tripped backwards and accidentally sent Rose toppling into a pillar.

She groaned and curled into a ball. The doctor flew to the controls again and whisked round them turning leavers. The Tardis emergency lights started flashing and the alarm signal started blaring out. Rose growled frustrated and blocked her ears. The doctor pressed a button and the alarm stopped. He ignored Rose's grumpy look and pressed more controls. She gave him one more snap of her eyes and then she curled up again. He banged one more thing with his handy hammer and then the Tardis made a groaning sound and landed with a thud.

Rose peeped from her Jacket and saw the doctor open the door and go out. She considered going out but then decided that sleep was more important.

Outside the doctor was far from pleased. As soon as he had stepped outside he had felt his feet sink into filth that went up to his knees. He looked around him at the tunnel in the same disgusted way and then peered down the other way. _Wonder if they have a cafe somewhere? _The doctor pondered and set off down the tunnel.

He soon ran into a bewildered young man with blonde hair. The man quickly frowned and glared, "What...are...you...doing...here!" he said crossly.

"Well I was just wandering that myself." The doctor said rubbing his head.

"Did you take them!" he said slightly more confident.

"Who?" he said leaning forward.

The man stared him in the eye for a minute.

"Why should I tell you?" He said spitting at the Doctor.

"You tell me." He said shrugging.

The man frowned angrily and pulled out a mobile phone and started to fiddle with it. The Doctor tapped his foot impatiently and fiddled with his sonic screwdriver. The boy closed it and snuck it in his pocket.

"Sent for back up," he said puffing himself up, "You won't get away!"

"Why would I be trying to get away, hmm?" the Doctor said with his eyes fixed on a crack on the wall.

The Doctor leapt over and put his head against the wall and stopped. Then he lifted up the sonic screwdriver and flicked the switch. It made a ZIP noise and the Doctor threw his arms up annoyed.

"I was so close!" he said signalling with his fingers together, "I just lost the signal! Just!"

The Doctor crossed his arms impatiently after ten long seconds, "so how longs this 'back up' going to take or can you tell me who you are and what's going on?"

Rose opened her eyes wearily and dragged her self stiffly up. Next time she decided, rubbing her shoulder, she shouldn't sleep on the ground. She called out for the doctor but no one replied so she decided to have a bath and then go look for him.

The Doctor nodded animatedly as he was told begrudgingly about the disappearances-"First it was Helen and Lora. Then we sent a search party down and Harry and Tom came running up saying they'd gone, Margaret, Sally, Ruth and Sandra, said they just vanished into thin air."

"And they were all girls?"

"Yeah...They were."

The doctor rubbed his hand on his chin while he thought.

"A girl snatcher, ay?"

The boy nodded.

Suddenly an old man came limping up the tunnel.

"Jim, have... Who's this" he said eyeing the filthy Doctor quizzically.

"I'm the Doctor. Nice to meet you...Mr Johnson."

They looked at him astonished, "How did you know my name?" He said confused.

"Name tag... but anyway I was just speaking to your friend about the disappearances." He leant forward and stared at him with utter seriousness.

"Well yes. A lot of our... but how did you..." he glared at Jim.

"Jim!"

Jim slumped guiltily, "he wanted to help."

The Doctor stuck out his hand and gave him his biggest grin. The man frowned and shook his hand gingerly.

"Nice to be off service..." he said and let go.


	3. Snatched

Rose opened the door to the Tardis and looked down at the filth on the ground. She ran back in and came back with a pair of rain boots on. Covering her nose she stepped out and trudged through the puddle. She looked, unimpressed at the dank corridors and her eyes flicked up at the blinking light.

The tunnel was a sort of grey colour with little bits of paint chipped off the wall, the light had given way and now all she had was a torch she'd grabbed from a shelf in the Tardis. Her light darted uncertainly around her at the constant dripping sounds and strange sounds. She now wished she hadn't strayed from the Tardis. Once or twice she could have sworn something darted in front of her light.

She pointed the torch right down the tunnel and was met by an unfriendly blackness. Was that a figure? She frowned and took a step backwards moving the torch round in front of her. Things kept on darting through her light. She took another step back and that's when she saw it. A humanoid with pearl white eyes and a ghastly grin with pointed white teeth was running at her.

Needing no other warning she span round and started sprinting down the corridor towards the Tardis at full pelt. But she knew it was too late. Within a few seconds her throat was clutched with a steel grip and her torch fell through her grip and span round before being crunched under the things foot. She gasped with the effort to breath and her vision started to blur and her stomach rolled and then she was gone.

Meanwhile the doctor was sitting on a mouldy, wet seat talking to Mr Johnson.

"There's something I'm missing." He said grumpily to Mr Johnson.

He flicked the sonic screwdriver and looked shocked.

"There's something we're all missing. There's a blooming monster taking the women away and we can't see 'em!"

"That's weird, there aren't any women down here are there?" the doctor was rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"No, course not!"

"But that's not right, a teleport signal out of here! Come on STUPID HEAD! Stupid! Gah...oh, I know." He said horrified, "ROSE!" he turned and sprinted down the corridor.

Mr Johnson limped as fast as he could to catch up to the Doctor's long stride.

"Who?" he said confused.

"Rose...My friend, I left her in my err... machine, she could of wandered out!" the Doctor groaned loudly.

"It would have been helpful if you had said this earlier you know! It has probably taken her already or whatever it does with 'em women." He said clasping his side at the effort to walk with his bad leg.

"What happened with your leg?" the Doctor said curiously.

"I fell from a roof and my leg has been bad since." he said shrugging; "you get used to these things..."

The Doctor stopped abruptly and inspected the ground.

"What are you doing stopping?" he said rubbing his head with a shaky hand.

The Doctor ignored him and picked up a smashed torch of the ground delicately.

"Probably one of the ladies," He said shrugging, "looks like it's broken."

"It's Rose's."


	4. Rule Number 1

Jim rubbed his wet forehead with his hand and wiped it on his jacket. He reached in one of his pockets and grabbed out his phone. He inspected the corridors smiling and then started to write a message-"Hey Sweetie, cyu at 5 at movies, Ill buy food Luv Jim."He clicked send gleaming. The phone beeped and came up with a white box saying 'Out of Range' and he clicked disgruntled.

"But you worked before!" he said frowning.

He turned around and took a few steps and it made a ding sound and he smiled. He snapped shut his phone and snuck it in his pocket.

A few seconds later a disgruntled Johnson and a disgusted looking Doctor came charging down the corridor, sonic screwdriver in hand.

"What's wrong?" he asked fearfully.

"I thought they were smart but no, they're stupid!" he said smiling venomously at him.

"Why?" Jim replied.

"Cause now it's PERSONAL!" he shouted angrily.

Everything seemed fuzzy to Rose. The entire world seemed to blur and shift around her and all the sound seemed to mix and echo. She felt terrible. Her eyes wanted to close but she forced them to stay open. Gradually the world seemed to come in focus and she could see a girl looking over her. She tried to sit up but her head began to swirl in pain and she fell down again. She noticed her clothes were sodden and wet.

"Keep still, it takes a few seconds for you to feel better." The girl said smiling shakily.

The girl, Rose thought, was sort of scary. She wasn't ugly at all, in fact she was pretty but her eyes were strange. They were large circle shape and a sea blue colour but they didn't stay the same, if she looked in them for long they seemed to swell and move like water. Also she was so tall and slim like she had just been stretched out with a rolling pin. Her clothes were too short for her and they were sagging on her because she was so slim and bony. Her hair was light blonde and went to her waist and her face was very pale as well. Noticing that she was staring she looked away and started to examine the room.

It was a rectangle shape with one wall cracked and bits of wall jutting out like a jig saw puzzle. It was small and grey and slimy, just like the tunnel. The white paint on the walls was peeling and flaking. There were a couple of ripped blankets in the corner and two bowls that sat against the jutting wall.

"Where am I?" she croaked as best she could.

"I don't know." The girl said shrugging, "we're somewhere underground, in the tunnel, some compartment. My name's Isabella, you were taken from the tunnel weren't you?"

"Yeah, looked like some abandoned tunnel leading to a station." she said thinking.

"It was. Lot of heritage places round here but they're pretty, this is disgusting. I can't believe people used to catch 'trains' from these. How did you know?"

"Oh...um just a bit of research I did for some...work I had." She said nervous that she had been caught out.

"Sydney has come a long way since then." She said sighing.

Rose looked interested, "Oh Sydney! Right so we're in Australia!"

"Didn't you know that!" she said laughing.

"Yeah, I was a bit put out sorry."

"You're from England aren't you?" the girl said eagerly, "Mum said we're going to catch a Tonner over there next weekend!"

"Really, how long for?"

"Just for a couple of days, said we could see the Stonehenge and London." She said shyly.

Rose nodded and pushed herself into a sitting position. She looked down and noticed that she was covered in slime.

"Yuck! Is that sewage or something?"

The girl shrugged and reached for a bowl. She passed it to Rose, giving her a nervous look and grabbed her own. Only then did she notice how hungry she was. It seemed to bubble over her all at once. She wiped her hand a on a clean bit of her shirt and started to slurp down the contents of the bowl. It was delicious but the more she ate the more hungry she felt. She finished the last drop and her tummy moaned.

Number 1 Rule she said remembering the Doctor's words, don't eat anything if you don't know what it is or if it is a burnt krumpburger in which case don't eat it anyway. She felt anxious at eating the stuff and put her bowl against the wall.

They sat in absolute silence for a few long seconds and while Rose thought. Finally she got up feeling better and walked around the room, brushing her hands against the wall.

"There has got to be a way out of here somewhere..." she said.

Her hands reached the jut and she searched over it meticulously with her fingers.

"This has got to be where they get the food through but how? Teleportation?" she said mostly to herself.

The other girl got up shaking her head. She looked worriedly into Rose's eyes.

"No! You can't go out! They said any human who escaped their room would be 'experimented on'."

Rose gulped nervously and placed her hands on it.

"If I stay here they'll feed me gloop that makes you hungrier and maybe taken anyway and if I go I could escape or get caught for experiments sooner. Did they say when they would start 'experimenting'?" she said, trying to me together her options.

"They already started on me." Her eyes darted up and Rose's mouth dropped.

"What did they do?" she said shocked and nervous.

"They put stuff in the food. After I ate it I noticed my eyes had changed colour and I started to grow. The more I eat the more it happens. I don't want them to change me!" she said starting to shake as tears fell down her face from her swirling eyes.

"Then why did you let me eat, why didn't you escape before?" She said feeling half sad for her and half annoyed. She felt her face apprehensively.

"They drug you. That's the cure for it!" she said covering her face in shame, "They brought you in and at first I thought you were dead but they told me to give you the stuff. I didn't want to but I had too."

"We've got to get out of here then. Are there others?" She said determined.

"I think so but we won't get out because they have guards. How about I distract them and you get out and get help?" she said, brightening up.

"That's more like it! How old are you Isabella?" she putting her arm round her.

"I'm 14." She said, "And how old are you?"

"I'm not sure, 19 or 20." She said shrugging and they started to discuss a plan.


	5. Run

The Doctor was rushing through the tunnels with his sonic screwdriver buzzing.

"If this is leading to a station, where is the station?" he said quizzically.

"You know I don't reckon any one of these leads to the station because if it did someone would of noticed and then this little creature's plan would have been ruined so I think they blocked it off and made a maze of tunnels all under Sydney, just below where you unsuspecting humans lived. But the creature doesn't want to get caught, no because it is weak and lonely so it put out bait for you and then as soon as you stepped in its territory it snatched you up, why just the girls though?" he huffed grumpily to the others.

"Maybe it thinks we're a different species and it doesn't want us?" Jim said hopefully.

The Doctor rubbed his long fingers against his chin while he thought.

"Hang on a second. If this creature can teleport wherever it wants and snatch up a girl without anyone noticing it must have used something to link it there. Like a connection but what could it use as a connection down here? Unless..."

Isabella was waiting for the sounds of footsteps with Rose lying on the ground quietly.

"Make sure Izzy that you use the spray when we're at the end of the hallway. Otherwise it'll get us before we're out." Rose whispered quietly.

"Yes sir." Izzy said dramatically

"Sorry." She said brushing aside her dirty hair from her face.

Only a couple of seconds later did Izzy hear footsteps. She waved to Rose who closed her eyes and lay motionless apart from her exaggerated breathing. Izzy shrivelled up into a ball in the corner as the wall moved and twisted to reveal a doorway and a terrifying blue creature with massive red eyes and small white pupils and sharp knife like beak/beak in what looked like a ripped golden suit.

"Food," It said mechanically placing the two bowls on the floor and turning to leave.

"Wait..." Izzy said putting her arm out, "the girl hasn't woken up! What do I do? I have fed her the stuff but it's not working!"

The creature turned back round and glared down at her and clicked its beak thing.

"It always works." It said.

"No! It hasn't! Look at her! She's barely even breathing!" she said pointing to Rose.

"I must show her to boss. You come too." It said and roughly picked her up with its claw like hands and holding her in a cup of one arm like she weighed a feather and grasped Izzy's hand with the other.

It dragged her out and made briskly down the corridor. She reached into her pocket and grasped a bottle with her fingers._ Wait _she told herself and let herself be dragged. Then just as she reached the end of the corridor she pulled it out of her pocket and sprayed it at the creature's exposed eyes. It let go of her furiously and Rose to cover its eyes. Izzy started to sprint down the corridor. Rose got upon mark but as she began to run the creature reached out with one of its hands and razor sharp claws and grabbed Rose's ankle making her head crack on the concrete floor. Her whole world spun and everything blurred as she struggled to maintain consciousness.

"Rose!" Izzy called out shocked.

"Run Izzy. Wun. Tell the Doctor um here," She mumbled.

Izzy looked at the fierce expression of the creature to Rose's limp body and she sprinted off. She could swear she heard laughing as she went.


	6. Telephone Line

The Doctor was holding his sonic screwdriver in this right hand and Jim's phone in the other.

"Why do you need my phone again?" Jim inquired grumpily.

"I'm using it to find where the teleport goes too and stop asking." He said spinning it round.

He stopped and licked his lips, "got it, this way!"

He led the way down the corridor until he reached a fork. Then he spun the phone around again.

Still don't get it." Jim said sulking.

"Last time, it uses sort of your phone signal to collaborate where it goes too. Like a source of power, we just have to follow to where the power supply starts."

They continued on, spiralling through the corridors endlessly.

Rose opened her eyes wearily, "Doc..."

She lifted her head and found her legs and arms tied down. She tried to wriggle out but they were too firmly tied. She was in an upright position however, tied to a board against the wall. No one was in sight and she seemed to be in yet another slimy room of mouldy, dripping concrete walls.

She gulped down her fears, "hello?"

No answer but her echoing voice.

She tried to get her right hand out by twisting her wrist round but nothing would get them out. _Hope they're not planning to starve me... No, they need me for something otherwise they would have just killed me._

The door banged shut beside her but before she could look her eyes were covered.

"Do not try to look." A cracking husky voice spoke in her ear.

"Who are you?" Rose shot at it.

"You will find out later! Be still! This hurt a bit maybe. More if you struggle."

She felt a sharp jolt of pain from her left arm and as she tried to move it away it shot down her arm like a razor sharp knife. She called out in pain.

"Stupid girl! You moved! No moving! You won't leave!" it spat at her.

Then a jolt of pain in her right arm and she couldn't help flinching at the pain which made it even worse.

"Ouch! STOP IT!" she cried out hopelessly.

"Stupid. Hurts a bit! Stop moving!"

Then there was a jolt of pain in her left leg and one more quickly in her right. She gritted her teeth against the pain and frustrated tears rolled down her cheeks.

"What-are-you-doing!" she hissed through her teeth.

"Surprise," It said.

With its free hand it unclenched Rose's teeth and dropped in a drop of some foul liquid before holding shut her mouth.

"Swallow, it help with pain," and he disappeared out of the room in the blink of an eye.

Rose spat out the liquid as soon as he had gone and looked down at her throbbing arms.

"Ouchy!" she said crossly.

After a few minutes her arms went numb along with her legs. Dazed and tired Rose closed her eyes.


End file.
